Ghost Cop
by Detective Writer Cop
Summary: Kevin Ryan has been shot and killed in the Line of Duty. His spirit still remains, and he has to find out who killed him. The only person who could hear and see him is his ten month old daughter, Sarah Grace.
1. The Lead

Castle

It's funny how death can be so sudden. You think that your covered by your team in a shoot out at an abandoned warehouse, but then it just happens without you knowing. Without you even realizing. I guess I should of seen it coming.

It was 6:30 in the morning already, and I was still exhausted from working a late shift last night. Jenny just woke up from our beeping alarm clock, and we decided to get a new one that played the radio instead. I lay in bed for a minute, and saw I had a missed call from Esposito, and a text saying there was a body. That was about fifteen minutes ago, so I still had some time to make it.

"Everything alright?" Jenny asked from the bathroom as she got changed into her white coat and hospital scrubs underneath. "Ya. We got a body, but I'm late" I said rushing out of bed andgetting right into my suit.

I didn't have much to wear other than a black and white suit with a maroon tie. I rushed downstairs as Jenny fixed her hair. There also wasn't much to eat when you only have ten minutes, so I just gabbed a Special-K bar, and rushed back upstairs to grab my gun and badge, which I forgot to bring down with me.

As I put my gun in my holster and clipped my badge to my black belt, I went to go see Jenny. "Bye babe" I said kissing her quickly, "Bye Kev, be careful" she said still fixing her had, "Always am" I responded and headed out to see my baby girl.

She was still of sleep, obviously, but ten month old daughter Sarah Grace slept peacefully as I kissed her on her forehead. I cracked her door, and I was on my way,

"Hey!" I said jogging towards Castle, Beckett, and Esposito, who were going over there victim, who was about to be taken to the morgue. "Sorry I'm late. My phone didn't go off" I quickly added, "At least you showed up late here and not at the precinct. Captain would of been pissed" Esposito informed me, "Ya, guess your right" I replied now in work mode.

"So what's up with our vic?" I asked as Esposito drove to the precinct. "For the moment, his name is Jon Doe, and we got nothing on him other then he was hit in the head, then shot in the chest" Esposito told me. "Least you didn't miss much" he added as I nodded.

As I was going over security footage on my computer, Beckett got a call from Lanie that she got an ID on are vic, and evidence other then that was that he was killed with Magnum and a baseball bat. 'Guy must if been a pro' I thought to my myself.

"Our vic is named Quin Weelan. Navy Seal, his family only included his mother and sister, who died in a car accident several ears ago. Age is twenty six, and he lives on 76th street" Beckett told us. This seemed like a usual case, that would be solved. It's sometimes not like that though. Some things are sometimes bigger than they appear. I learned that a long time ago.

Work has been a little quiet for me. Castle and Beckett were now happily married, and Esposito, Lanie, and I weren't invited to the last minute wedding. We were kind of bummed (and we were jerks about it) but we were extremely happy for them after getting over it. This meant that they were even more romantic and distracted by each other than ever before, but like I said, we were happy for them.

Esposito and Lanie got back together. Esposito had commitment issues, but I always knew who he would someday work those out. When he's suppose to be doing his paperwork, he'll just text Lanie that he loves her instead of doing actual work. At the end of the week, he'll have a pile of papers the size of a small dog.

Work has been the same for me, other then me getting use to all the changes of everyone else and their love lives. It's a great feeling seeing every one happy. After the incident about two years ago with Beckett resigning, Esposito and Castle gone, it was just kind of lonely, and I missed them.

"Ryan and Esposito, do you guys mind running a back round check on Dylan Gards?" Beckett asked, "Whose Dylan Gards?" I asked confused.

"Bro, Beckett just got done explaining who he was while you were in outer space" Esposito said rolling his eyes, "Dylan Gards is our suspect. Friend of Weelan. Castle and I checked his phone records about twenty minutes ago, and he made a threat saying he was going to kill our vic" Beckett explained with less detail. "Got it" I said now knowing, "Castle and I will search Weelan's apartment" Beckett said and we were off.

This chapter was a little short and boring. Sorry! I promise by next chapter it gets WAY better


	2. Shock

_I _ _didn't expect it_ _to go down like this. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever._

"Did you guys find anything?" Esposito asked from his desk, "We only got an address. Espo, come check this out and tell us what you find" Beckett gave him the paper and left. "You find anything?" Castle asked me, "He's got a solid alibi, but he might know something" I replied.

"Maybe he has superhero skills, and someone found out from work and was jealous. That's why he quit his job, but maybe Weelan wanted back in the military, so our killer hit him in the head with a bat and shot him"

Beckett rolled her eyes as always when Castle started theorizing. I have to admit, Castle's a bit of a genius. He may sound crazy, but sometimes he's right.

"Yo, I got a hit on our address" Esposito walked in front of us and started talking. "It's an old abandoned shipping warehouse about a half hour away. I checked for security cameras, and I saw our vic enter and leave numerous times during the day. The last time he walked in, someone followed him"

"Good work Espo. Let's all go check the warehouse out and see if we can find anything" Beckett told us and we headed there right away.

"It smells" Castle pointed out. "No dip Sherlock" Esposito replied as Beckett and I grinned. "Let's head through the back. We don't know what could be behind these walls" Beckett said as we all nodded.

She was right. None of us knew what was going on in there. There could be nothing, or there could be some science lab of some sorts performing deadly experiments or something. It even could be a bomb. I know that one from experiencing one.

Esposito was getting ready to open the door, while Beckett would be the first in, I would be second, Esposito third, and Castle fourth.

"I hope this is interesting. I need something for my book" Castle whispered loudly, "Sorry that cops aren't as interesting as you thought" I teased him, "Whatever, Honeymilk" he teased me back and I smiled. That reminded me of Jenny, and my beautiful daughter waiting for me to come home tonight.

Esposito opened the door quietly and we went in by our orders. "NYPD, anybody here?" Beckett asked, "Wish I wore my vest" Castle said, "Why?" Esposito asked him, "Anytime we wear our vests, it makes everything feel awesomer" Castle said with a grin, "Awesomer isn't a word" I corrected him, "Exactly" he replied as we moved on.

"Wait a second" Esposito said, "What?" Castle asked, "Look" Espo replied with a whisper. All we saw were guns, and even more guns. Big guns. We saw a blue print or a plan of some sorts. Beckett was about to call for backup when bullets filled the room.

"Castle! Get to cover!" Beckett yelled as I saw Castle crouch down behind a large shipping crate. I made sure where Esposito was so I could cover him. It was a system depending on where you are. Espo would cover Beckett, while she covered me, and I covered Esposito. In the end, we just make sure everyone comes out alive.

Beckett finally got to get a chance to call for back up when the bullets stopped for a second. Time to reload for round two. Bullets filled the room once more. I finally hit one guy in the shoulder, out of six more guys. The man fell, but was still alive and shooting from the ground. They never give up.

I was still going hard. Backup was ten minutes away, and we just had to hold on. With four guys left, and the one shooting from the ground, we could get out of this.

"Castle! Stay down lower!" Beckett yelled at him and she turned towards him. She crouched down with him for a second. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but now, we had to be even more careful now that Esposito and I were just shooting.

I was backing up Esposito, but no one was covering me, since I was more behind him. "Beckett! We need you up here!" Esposito yelled finally. "One second!" She replied.

I kept shooting, but then a sharp pain went through me. It was only for a second, and then my gun slipped out of my hand. I quickly ran straight to more of the shipping crates that were in front of me. "Kevin!" I heard Esposito yell as he ran towards where I was before.

"Espo! I'm over here!" I yelled, but he ran the other direction, the shooting stopped, so I stood up to see Castle and Beckett run with Esposito to where I was before.

I quickly walked over. "Guys?" I asked approaching. What I saw was the worst thing you could ever see. My body was dead on the ground. There was blood everywhere. "He's still breathing! Call an ambulance!" I heard Esposito yell. This couldn't be happening. How come I wasn't in my body? "Ambulance will be here in five" Beckett said.

I couldn't stand their worried faces. I tapped on Castle, who was the closest to me, but nothing happened. I saw my face turn a white pale, and it scared the crap out of me. I was watching myself die.

That's when the pain hit. I screamed so loud and fell on the ground. I was still screaming at the top of my lungs, and they couldn't hear me. It stopped a few seconds later. "Come on! Wake up!" I heard Esposito yell, "Javi, he's gone!" Beckett yelled, "No..." I heard that whimper from Esposito and it broke my heart.

I stood up with shaky legs. "Guys! I'm right here!" I yelled at them. I crouched in front of them and yelled for them to hear me. That's when I looked at my chest. Six bullet holes were carved into my body and were glowing. I was dead.


	3. One Friend

This was bad. Very very bad. Why was I still here? Why can't anyone else hear me? What about my friends? What about my family?

When Lanie took my body away, I realized this wasn't a dream. I walked towards a crying Esposito and Beckett, while Castle talked to Captain Gates.

"What happened Mr. Castle?" Gates asked seriously. "They were all just shooting, and one of them hit Ryan, and, I don't know. It happened to fast." I heard Castle say not wanting to ay anymore because it was to hard for him.

"We'll figure this out, and we'll find him. All of them." Beckett tried cheering up Esposito, but it wasn't working. "It's my fault Kate." I was suppose to be covering him, but I got careless and he's dead. He dead!" Esposito yelled at himself. It wasn't his fault.

"Javi, this wasn't your fault! It was mine OK!" Castle said interrupting. "I was being stupid and it caused Beckett to have to specifically tell me to stay back. I distracted her which messed up everything!"

This was getting ridiculous. Now they were all arguing about whose fault it was. If they could hear me right now, I would be the one yelling at them for being stupid because this was an accident. There was nothing they could have done about it.

"Guys?" Crap. It was Jenny, I don't know how she's gonna handle this. "What's going on? Is Kevin alright?" She asked so worried. "Jenny, I know this is bad, but I need to talk to you." Beckett said as she took my wife away.

I didn't follow them. I stayed right where I was because I didn't want to see Jenny so upset. The only thing I wanted to do was scream and throw things out of anger and depression.

While Beckett broke the news to Jenny, and Castle and Espo sat in silence with tears in their eyes, I went to go see what Gates what up to.

"And there aren't any security cameras?" I came in the middle of a conversation with Gates and another police officer. "I'm sorry. We don't have anything on our shooters." He replied sympathetically.

"Alright, thank you." Gates said and left to go see Castle and Esposito. I followed her as she approached the quiet men.

"Did any of you see anything?" She asked determined, "The only one who wasn't wearing a mask was the one that Beckett took down." Esposito replied as they sighed in stress.

I saw Gates glance over to Beckett and a crying Jenny. " Calm her the best you can. That's an order." Gates demanded feeling horrible for Jenny. "Let's head back to the Precinct." Esposito suggested as they all nodded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When we got to the precinct, everyone went straight to work. There wasn't much for me to do, but I guess speculating was my best tool right now.

Staring at my own murder board was hard and weird. My police academy picture was hung up in the 'victims' section along with our original vic.

"That's gotta suck." I heard a voice talking to me. I turned around, and there was a man. He was wearing a suit vest with a tie, black pants, and a stubble beard. He was staring right at me.

"Can you hear me?" I asked quickly, "Of course I can hear you. Do you think I'm deaf?" He asked obviously joking with me.

"How?" I yelled. "Must be a newbie." I heard him say to himself. "Seriously! How can you hear me?" I continued yelling.

"First off, my name is Ashton Miller, and stop yelling." He told me so I shut up and let him talk. "I'm just like you. Dead."

I took in what he said for a moment. He must be trapped here too. "How?" I asked, "I'm dead, you're dead. It's as simple as that. We both are trapped here, and now you have to find a way out because there is one more thing you have to do before you pass on to Heaven."

"Oh." That's all I said. It was all coming clear. I had to find out who shot me and get him locked up in order to pass on. "How did you end up here?" I asked curiously.

"I use to work here in a special homicide squad called Squad Shadow. We solved the murders of big rich people, terrorists, all that stuff."

Wow. This guy is good. "But anyways, we found out that our suspect was actually a terrorist and living in New York City to feed his people back in Afghanistan Intel. We talked to him, he drugged us, tortured us, and then he finally shot me in the head. My partner survived."

"I'm so sorry." I told him. That's gotta be hard. "I've been trapped here for the past fifteen years because still haven't taken out that terrorist." Fifteen years! I can't stay here that long!

"Tell me about you." Ashton said quickly changing the subject. "Well, my name is Kevin Ryan, and I I used to be in Narcotics, and I did a few undercover operation in the Irish mob too."

"Now I was a homicide detective. That's my team over there." I said pointing to Castle, Beckett, and Esposito. "I had a daughter who is now ten months old, but I guess she'll never know me because I got shot in a warehouse when we checked out a lead. All the guys had guns, and it just went south."

"That's hard." Ashton replied, "You got a wife?" He added, "Ya, her name is Jenny, and my daughter is named Sarah Grace." I responded. "I don't usually do this, but I'm gonna help you get out of this place. You don't deserve to be here." He told me.

"Thanks." I said surprised, "Let's take you to your house." He told me, "Why do you want to go there?" I asked, "So you can see your family." Ashton told me and we left.


	4. Blame Game

Ashton and I finally walked up to my apartment building. We were dead, so we couldn't drive cars. We walked a few miles. I saw my neighbor, Lance, open the glass door. Ashton and I quickly slipped in, and the followed Lance into the elevator.

"If I talk, can he hear me?" I asked, "No. You have to try." I had no clue what try meant. "What do you mean?" I replied, "Your mind is the key to everything. Watch."

"Hey." Ashton said. Lance turned around and looked from where the noise was coming from. He shrugged it off and the elevator doors opened.

I looked at Ashton confused. "I'll tell you later." He told me and we walked to my apartment door.

"How do we get in?" I asked. Ashton walked right through the wall. I was hesitant to try it at first, but I followed and we were in.

"Oh." I said as he grinned. "Nice place ya got." He said, "Thanks. Wish I could come home tonight, but, well, you know why."

"So, your daughter is pretty cute." Ashton said trying to lighten the mood and broke the silence as we sat in the living room and watched her. "Thanks." I quickly replied.

"When's your funeral?" He asked, "In a couple days from what I've heard from Jenny on the phone with the memorial people."

"I'm going to let you be. I'll see you at the precinct tomorrow morning. If you need anything, I'll be at the docks. Go clear your head." Ashton said and left.

I decided to stop by the precinct to check up on my case.

When I arrived, I went right to the Homicide Division floor. I saw Esposito cleaning out my desk, which started to irritate me. Guess it had to happen sooner or later. I questioned if he was going to get a new partner or not.

I walked up to Javi, and sat in my chair. He was almost done when he came upon an old picture of us just starting out as partners. He was getting emotional.

He finally put the picture in his pocket, and finished. I wish I could just have one minute where I could talk to him. I could give my real goodbye.

"You ok?" Beckett asked him with Castle behind her. "No." He replied, "Javi, Maybe you should take the day off. Ryan would want you-"

"It doesn't matter what Ryan wants! Kevin isn't here Kate! You guys treat this case like it doesn't matter. I know Ryan would never take off if I were him right now. You don't understand! You acting like Kevin was just another street cop you didn't know! Just another fallen officer. No Kate. It's not like that. He's dead because of the two of you!"

Javi got up and left. Castle, Beckett, and I were stunned by his snap. "Kate, he's just mad. Don't listen to him. It's ok."

"No, Castle. He's right. Ryan is dead because of us. I wasn't paying attention. He got shot. He's gone."

"We can't change that, Kate. Kevin wouldn't want us blaming ourselves or each other for something that his shooter did. It's not us. He knows that."

I did know that. I hated the blame game. I didn't like Esposito's words, but some of it was true. I didn't want to believe it, but maybe, just maybe, I might still be alive if Beckett was along side us.

It doesn't mean that we should still blame anyone for the incident. The only thing anyone could do was to just help me solve my murder.

After replaying the scene over and over again in my mind, I went to go see Lanie. I wonder how she was taking this.

When I walked through the doors. I found Lanie with Javi, and my body. I decided to just listen to their conversation.

"You want me to pick you up for the funeral?" Javi asked kindly, "That would be nice. Thanks." Lanie replied with a grin. I assumed she hasn't smiled in a while.

"How's Jenny?" She asked while carefully trying to find the bullets in my body. "I'm gonna stop by after my shift. She hasn't talked to anyone lately." Javi replied sadly.

He was right. Jenny had only told the family the news. "She's been bugged by reporters lately." Esposito informed the ME.

"She needs to be left the hell alone. She's probably being harassed by reporters." Lanie told her boyfriend.

"She was live on the news once so far. I don't know if she'll agree to do anymore interviews." Esposito assumed. "Can I come see her with you?" Laine asked. "Sure. She'll be glad to see someone new."

"How's Castle and Beckett?" Lanie said. Esposito paused for a moment. "What? What did you do?" She asked, "I got mad and blamed them for all of this."

"Javier Esposito! Why would you do that?" She was furious. "I was cleaning our his desk, saw a few photos of us, I got upset, they showed up. They just decided to talk to me at the wrong time."

"Javier, look into your partner's eyes." My bodies eyes were a pale blue that looked to have no life what so ever. "I could read people, even if they are dead. You know what he's saying?"

Esposito remained silent not taking his eyes off of mine. "He's saying that it's not your fault, and it's not Castle and Beckett's either. Kevin is saying that the only one you could blame is the one who was holding the gun with the bullets that pierced into him six times like a knife."

Silence filled the cold room. Lanie was right. It's exactly what I was saying through those sad eyes of mine on the metal table.

Javi started to walk away. "Where are you going?" Lanie asked, "To catch the man who murdered my brother."

I am so sorry for the wait! I've been so busy with school and Christmas, and I'm also working on this new story and I'm planning it to be longer than this.


	5. Mind Reading

The next morning, I met with Ashton. He was ready to teach me what he knew about being "_dead_". After heading to the precinct to check up on the my case, we headed to the docks. I noticed that Ashton spends a lot of time there. Wish I knew why.

"Ok, so. I'm going to teach you how to interact, and how to pick things up." He informed me as I let him continue.

"See that fisherman over there?" Ashton asked. I replied with an nod. "Think in your mind about talking to him. It doesn't have to be long."

I thought about just walking up to him and saying hi like an normal person, but then again, I'm no normal person.

"Now go talk to him." Ashton ordered. I walked up to the fisherman. "Hey." I said loudly, but no response. Not even a look around.

"Thats really strange." Ashton walked up with his thinking face on, and he tried, which worked perfectly normal

"I don't know what's wrong." He said puzzled, "Maybe, my brain isn't developed." I asked not knowing what to say.

"No. Right when you change, which you have, it works. Your just, I don't know, different." Ashton said sadly.

A part of me was upset I couldn't interact with the world, but a part of didn't care as much. I just wish I could talk to Javi. I just want to tell him that's it ok, and everything will be alright.

When night hit, I usually stayed in, or headed to the precinct. Tonight, I wanted to switch it up a little. I was going to head to Castle's tonight, and Esposito's tomorrow.

When I arrived at Castle's it was pretty quiet. I didn't know if they were still upset about me. It's been three days, I know. They have the right, but I want to see them smile again.

Alexis was sitting at the counter studying, while Martha was making some kind of disgusting smoothie that Jenny would make me drink

Beckett was thinking. I didn't know what, but I could tell by her look. It's that "staring off into space look".

Ashton told me that you control everything with your mind. A few words, and there. You got it. Maybe it would work on reading minds.

I thought about reading Beckett's mind. And sure enough, it worked. I could hear very word she was thinking.

_"Maybe the owner of the warehouse had something to do with it...or maybe they worked for him."_

Beckett was talking about my case. I wish she would take a break for a minute or two and enjoy her life. Not work.

I went over to Castle, who was watching TV with Beckett in his arms. I wanted to see what he was thinking.

_"I wonder if Ryan was tied in with the all this. If this was on purpose. The shooters knew him from narcotics, and this was a trap."_

If they were talking about narcotics, this had something to do with drugs. Castle is a genius! Maybe someone did make this a trap, or maybe there is a rat in the precinct who told the shooters we were coming and to get ready. I have to go tell Ashton!

Sorry if this chapter is a little short, and I know it's late. I got stuck doing a project, and I've been doing it 24-7, because my group dumped me with writing 6 pages, a whole 5 paged packet that they just copied and a stupid PowerPoint. So sorry for the delay, and I'll have the next chapter up soon. I also will be updating The Undercover Operation soon. So tell me what you think is going to happen next!


	6. Memorial

"Ashton!" I yelled running down the precinct, "What's up?" He asked me casually, "I got a new theory." I replied catching my ghostly breath and telling him about the theory.

"We have to find out if this case was involved with drugs." I explained really believing in this. "Let's go down to narcotics and go through some files." Ashton suggested and we were off.

I haven't been down in narcotics in a while, and the feeling of being back down was great. I flashed back to many memories of my first day, the time a solved a huge on going case, and the day I packed up for homicide.

It had been two hours of going through case files. We were looking to see if any other case had men with masks, and those pretty big guns. In the end, we found four cases in which similar details occurred.

"I think we should start to look into these in tomorrow morning and we'll see if your case even has anything do do with drugs." Ashton suggested, "I agree. See ya tomorrow." I said standing up and ready to leave. When I started walking out, I remembered to thank him. "Thank you for helping me. This might be our big break." I said with a warm smile, and he nodded without any words, but he was too easy read.

I completely forgot. Today was my memorial service. I guess last night with the files and the theory really threw off my task with my personal life. At least Ashton stopped by this morning.

Before he came, I watched Jenny get ready. She was so beautiful, and she's been still so upset. I just wish I could just go hug her and tell her I'm ok. But I can't.

"Hey." Ashton said coming behind and scaring me in the process. "Oh. Hi." I said softly. "You ok?" He asked, "Ya." I replied with a lie.

"Ready to get into the case files?" He said excitedly, "Can't. Funeral is today." I replied as his smile faded.

When Ashton and I arrived, it was just beginning. The funeral was held outside, and it was actually held the same place as Montgomery's. It was pretty scary to be back here after Beckett got shot.

"I'll be over here." Ashton said giving me some alone time for the memorial. I stood in the front next to Jenny and Sarah Grace.

The drums played as Esposito, Beckett, Castle, Johnson, and Perry brought down my casket. Nile Johnson was my old partner in narcotics, and Mike Perry was a close member of our team.

My casket was set down on white cloaked table, and they all folded my flag that was once over me. As they handed it to Jenny she broke down in tears. This time was the most painful for her.

Speeches were almost done and I was touched by all of them, but Esposito's still remained.

Everyone got quiet again as he began

"My partner was a bright intelligent man who tragically died in the line of duty.

He left behind a family. And that family is grieving over his death just like me.

We shared the good times and the bad, but overall everything turned out great.

We've gone through hell, and we survived it together from tortures to burning buildings.

He made me laugh. He made me smile. His blue eyes were always shining threw it all.

And that is why Kevin Ryan was my partner, my best friend. My brother."

Javier's speech made me so emotional. I missed all of them so much. I'll never forget his words as he tried not to cry while saying them up on the wooden podium.

The five of them picked up my casket and everyone got ready to head to the cemetery.

"Hey." Ashton said will a 'cheer up' smile. "That was pretty nice up there." He added referring to all the speeches dedicated to me. "It was. I really do appreciate everything that they ever did for me."

When everything was all said and done, Esposito headed to my apartment. It was probably just to check on Jenny.

He was still wearing his uniform, and he barged in without a word and just hugged her tightly and they cried together.

I knew everything would get better and they would move on like most people, but they both needed more time.

"It's ok. We have to move on." She said still tightly in his arms. They spent they spent the whole night together and I watched their pain slowly drain away.


End file.
